University of South Florida students wait line line to vote Tuesday Nov. 4, 2008 in Tampa, Fla. Students waited in lines for in excess of three-hours after university officials miscalculated the amount of students wishing to vote.

Record turnout, but few problems

Significant lines were also reported in Maryland, a solidly Democratic state that had not been contested by Republican John McCain. At one precinct, a local state senator who was not up for reelection stationed himself outside and gave out cookies to those who were waiting to vote.

But there was also evidence of lessons learned from 2004 — and some good luck. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, skies were clear and the wait time for voting was about an hour — a striking contrast to the long wait in pouring rain that voters experienced four years ago.

Early voting appeared to help ease the burden for many election officials. In Colorado, for instance, 64 percent of active voters had cast their ballots before Election Day, a figure that exceeded the early votes cast in 2004 and 2006 combined, officials said.

Georgia election officials also saw heavy early voting. More than 2.2 million of the state’s voters cast their ballots in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

“Waiting times across the state, in Atlanta and rural counties are averaging an hour or less. That’s a positive,” said Matt Carrothers, a Georgia spokesman.

Voting rights advocates, though, reported an increase in deceptive messages targeted at minority and new voters. The messages, sent via Facebook, text message, flyers and robocalls, told Democrats to cast ballots on Wednesday and warned that voters with unpaid parking ticks would be arrested at the polls.

“We don’t have any evidence that there’s any coordination,” Goldman said, “but the messages are identical across the country.”

The National Defense Committee is visiting counties in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia to check for any problems with military voting.

Bob Carey, a senior fellow for the committee, said members of the military serving overseas will be sending in thousands of absentee ballots, some of which will arrive later. In 2000, military votes helped push the election in George W. Bush’s favor, so they want to make sure those votes are counted in this election, he said.